The Doomed Shuttle
By David Barth
This story was written on May 16, 2001. Its inspiration came from an earlier announcement by NASA that it would put an emergency exit door into the shuttle so
that the astronauts could bail out in a Challenger-type accident.
It was a clear, cold Sunday as workers on pad 39 at the Cape finished their work and cleared the site, retiring to the block houses just prior to the launch of the
shuttle, America. The countdown continued through the teens and into single digits as the seven astronauts aboard the ship checked their belts and harnesses
that would hold them in their seats during the g-loads imposed by the rockets. By the time the countdown reached zero, the boosters had already ignited and
were increasing power to achieve liftoff thrust. Billows of steam and smoke poured from the pad as the shuttle slowly lifted into the bright sky.
Roger Conrad was a scientist who had applied for shuttle flights to the international space station to prepare for the Mars shot scheduled for the following year.
A lot of preparations were needed, and his expertise in computers enabled him to be chosen to test the complex Mars flight software. The large Mars ship was
assembled at the space station. The shuttle had been transporting sections of it to the station for the past year. Roger's job would be to do the final tests before
the Mars rocket was certified for the yearlong journey to the red planet.
On board the shuttle, as it accelerated spaceward, Roger thought back to the fateful Challenger explosion many years before, during the cold weather launch in the
late '80's. An "O" ring sealing two sections of a booster rocket had failed, allowing hot gases to escape and heat the large fuel tank until it exploded. The Challenger
was blown free, and the ensuing investigation showed that the crew had been alive after the tank blew. In fact, at least one of them was conscious because they
found one crew member had switched his suit to internal life support, a procedure that could have only been done if an astronaut were conscious after
the catastrophe occurred.
Today was cold, too, but the rocket engineers were certain that they had solved all possible problems that would cause a Challenger-type event. After Challenger,
when the incident was investigated, astronauts insisted that an escape hatch be installed and that each crewmember wear a parachute with their pressure suits for
all future launches. This would enable them to blow the explosive bolts on the hatch and jump out. The chutes would open automatically at a safe altitude. The
astronaut's space suits had inflation bladders that would activate if immersed in water. The shuttle designers thought that these extra precautions were unnecessary,
but then, they didn't have to fly in the shuttle.
As the g-forces pressed Roger and his six crewmates back into their seats, he remembered that the Challenger had exploded a few seconds after the "throttle up"
phase of the flight began. That crew had been given the "go" to throttle up, and then it happened. The main fuel tank, larger than the ship itself, exploded, blowing the
Challenger and the two solid boosters free. In the conflagration, ground cameras showed the exhaust trail of the shuttle up to the explosion cloud and the two
boosters blasting away, but there was no sign of the shuttle. Later, when the shuttle was lifted from the floor of the Atlantic, it was nearly intact, indicating that
it had structurally survived the event. Unfortunately, the crew had no way to exit the stricken ship.
As Roger pondered these thoughts, he heard the ground controller clear the shuttle pilot to throttle up. This is it, Roger thought. If it is going to blow, it will blow at
throttle up, just like the Challenger did on a similar, cold day. But the throttle up procedure went without a hitch, and Roger breathed a sigh of relief. Soon the boosters
would run out of fuel and be discarded, along with the large fuel tank.
Then Roger felt a slight shudder. Since this was his first launch, he didn't know if it was normal. He looked around, but he couldn't see the facial expressions of the
others through their helmet faceplates. All of them were sitting still, just as they had since launch. Roger decided it was a normal phenomenon. Another shudder
happened, this time, bigger than the first. Roger began to get concerned. As Roger began to worry, suddenly, everything went black.
Roger's eyesight began to come back slowly. He didn't know how long he had been unconscious. Maybe it had been a few seconds, maybe it had been minutes.
But the flight felt different, now. Instead of the two-plus g forces pushing him into the seat and the noise of the engines, he was weightless, and it was very quiet.
That meant they were either in orbit or they were going down. The other six astronauts were motionless in their seats, just as before. If they were in orbit, everything
would be OK, but if they were falling toward the ocean . . .
Roger spoke over his intercom to the others, but he got no response from any of them. He reached over to the knob that switched his suit to internal life support and
turned it. Now his suit was self-contained and would support him for nearly an hour.
Roger unbuckled his harness and groped his way to the windows. He floated toward the windows by pushing his way from his seat and the walls of the cabin. Looking
out, he saw the immense blue ocean below. The shuttle's nose was pointed downward at about 20 degrees, and, although they were at a high altitude, the shuttle was
descending. Roger looked back at the others, still motionless, strapped in their seats. He decided the only way they were going to survive this would be to exit the ship
before it hit the water.
He pushed his way to the bulkhead where there was the handle that would blow the explosive bolts for the emergency hatch. He lifted the cover and gave the handle a
hard yank. There was a loud bang as the hatch blew off and the cabin suddenly depressurized. Roger hung onto the handle to keep from being sucked out the
hatch.
Although his objective was to exit the stricken craft, he wanted to get the others out first. Making his way to each of the other six astronauts, Roger switched their
suits to internal life support and unbuckled them from their seats. A few of them were beginning to regain consciousness, but they were still unaware of the situation.
Roger dragged each one from their seat and pushed them through the hatch. A few of them were awake enough to try to resist going out, but Roger released their grip
on the edge of the hatch and as soon as they hit the airstream outside, they were whisked away. Most of Roger's six fellow crewmembers were still limp, and it was an
effort to get them out.
Although the ship had slowed to subsonic speed, it was still hurtling toward the water at over two hundred miles per hour. Finally, after Roger had gotten all the others
out, he dived through the hatch. The rush of air outside was like hitting a brick wall as he exited. He was in free fall, and he stabilized himself enough to look around.
He saw the shuttle zoom away toward the ocean. He knew it would hit hard. Had they not gotten out, he knew they would have been killed on impact or drown as it sank.
He was thankful for the redesign of the shuttle following the Challenger disaster that permitted the addition of the escape hatch and parachutes.
Looking back toward the Cape, Roger could see a couple of chutes below. The other four were too far away to be seen. The parachutes had automatically opened at
a preset altitude. Suddenly, Roger's own chute opened and he was yanked hard. He knew that rescue services would head for each downed astronaut and pick them
after their floatation gear activated and they surfaced in the Atlantic.
Roger wondered if the crew would get a shoulder patch for half a shuttle mission. At least they wouldn't receive it posthumously.